Congressional Hispanic, Asian Pacific American and Black Caucus groups issued a joint letter Monday urging the House Appropriations Committee to remove "illegal aliens" from their lexicon.

A day later, House Republicans narrowly approved use of the term, ensuring future legislation could use the phrase, saying when referring to undocumented immigrants.

U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, had issued a statement asked the committee to heed the Library of Congress' earlier decision, if only because it dehumanizes individuals.

"In the past, as society has come to understand the pain certain words can cause communities, we've done the right thing and eliminated those terms from our acceptable vocabulary," Castro said in a statement. "The Appropriations Committee should continue that process now, not move our nation backwards and unnecessarily perpetuate a negative stigma."

Castro suggested less offensive terms like "foreign nationals" or "undocumented foreign nationals" along with legislations banning the "alien" from federal law.

The library's March 22 letter to the committee said "the phrase illegal aliens has taken on a pejorative tone in recent years." Library members instead suggested using "noncitizens" and "unauthorized immigration," given that the word "alien" has numerous definitions and only applies to beings from another planet.

Republicans Challenge the Library

GOP lawmakers opposed the change, arguing the LOC overstepped its authority and politicized the issue.

Rep. Tom Graves, R-Ga., said it was simply an issue of matching immigration terminology to the U.S. legal code. Rep. Diane Black, R-Tenn., took it a step further, introducing legislation requiring the library to use "illegal alien."

"Hopefully this bill will give Washington the push needed to stop thinking up the most politically correct ways to describe illegal immigrants and start thinking about solutions to address it," Black said in a statement last month.

"Illegal Alien" Approved as Part of Spending Bill

House appropriations members voted on 12 bills Tuesday as part of a $3.5 billion 2017 fiscal year budget proposal. One boosted the HAC budget by 1.5 percent; another allocates $517.1 billion in discretionary funding to the Defense Department.

The bill eliminating "illegal alien," as the LOC and American Library Association requested, lost by a 25-24 vote.

"To the extent practicable, the Committee instructs the Library to maintain certain subject headings that reflect terminology used in title 8, United States Code," read the committee's spending report.

Title 8 of the U.S. Code defines "alien" as undocumented immigrants who are "not a citizen or national of the United States."